My wife is scared to death of handguns. She has tried, bless her heart, but the fear is just there. I have excellent ear protection for her, I've tried different calibers and platforms but other than .22 LR everything is very frightening for her.
I want her to get more gun confident and she wants to get comfortable enough to consider a CCW someday.

Well, today we had a break though.... I have an old S&W model 10 .38 special. Even that was intimidating for her. But today, I loaded some "mouse fart" .38 special rounds using 3.5 grains of Trail Boss under 158 gr SWC and she absolutely had a blast! She shot the heck out that old .38, both hands, one hand, single action and double. She shot well too.... killed a bunch of soda cans and even hit a few bull's eyes on the targets.

The thing is, if I didn't reload, I don't think one could buy the "breakthrough" ammo. I have no idea what the power factor is, but I'm quite certain that there is nothing commercially available this light. Another interesting thing about this load was how accurate it is. Up to 15 yards (as far as we tried) it shot point of aim with almost no recoil.

For me, I also got to enjoy some unusual rounds. I loaded up some variations of .38 "Elmer Keith .38/44" loads and fired them from my Ruger GP 100 .357. Same cartridge and bullet as my wife's "mouse farts" and I was able to get very near .357 magnum performance with just a change in the powder type and volume. The .38/44 loads were great fun for me to shoot and also very accurate.

When my wife was first shopping for a handgun, a salesman loaded a .38spl with Magtech .38 shorts, so she would think the gun had light recoil. She brought the brass home and I've reloaded them for people who are afraid of recoil. It's a nuisance because I have to use a hybrid of .38 and 9mm dies to load them.

Trail Boss burns super fast. I don't have QuickLoad at the moment but as I recall it was indicating that the TB would be completely burned virtually before the bullet moved, maybe 1/4". I was loading rifle cartridges with far more pressure and powder (7.5-15gr) but I'd bet 3.5gr would burn nearly instantly, probably before the bullet clears the case.

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